11.16.05 (MusicPortal.com) A new studio album from THE DEREK TRUCKS BAND is set for a February 7th release via Columbia Records. "Songlines," the first new recording by the band in nearly four years, and the first studio album to feature the full-throated, impassioned vocals of their newest member, Mike Mattison, "Songlines" signals THE DEREK TRUCKS BAND's arrival at a spiritual plateau after a decade-long journey of musical discovery, and cements Derek Trucks' reputation as one of the greatest guitarists of his generation. While "Songlines" embraces the group's big-eared love of Rock, Blues, Jazz, Latin and World Music, it is unquestionably their most cohesive album to date. "Songlines" features several originals written by THE DEREK TRUCKS BAND with collaborator Jay Joyce - from the Hammond B3 groove of 'I'll Find My Way' to Joyce's anthemic, fiery 'Revolution' and the shimmering Derek Trucks instrumental, 'Mahjoun.' Elsewhere, traditional Blues (a wickedly funky 'Crow Jane' rendered in with a cutting falsetto by Mattison) mingle with the band's stirring, tent revival take on Roland Kirk's classic 'Volunteered Slavery,' and their epic reading of the Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn composition, 'Sahib Teri Bandi/Maki Madni' - a song that swells from a delicate tone piece to a whirling dervish and back again. "Songlines" takes its name from an Aboriginal tradition which claims the culture's totemic elders traveled the Australian continent literally singing their world into existence.Ê In turn, the "songlines" they created became a map for finding one's way through life. Derek Trucks has followed his own songlines from a very early age. A professional, touring musician since the age of twelve, Trucks now spends over 300 days a year on the road with THE DEREK TRUCKS BAND and THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND. Now 26, Derek Trucks is the youngest guitarist to place on Rolling Stone's recent "100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time" list. THE DEREK TRUCKS BAND are currently on the road, and can be seen at some of their upcoming shows alongside MOFRO (11/16, 11/17, 11/19, 11/20) and the SUSAN TEDESCHI BAND (12/30, 12/31). Tour Dates: 11/16 Portland, NE [State Theatre] • 11/17 Poughkeepsie, NY [Bardavon Theatre] • 11/18 Uncasville, CT [Mohegan Sun Casino] • 11/19 Boston, MA [Avalon Ballroom] • 11/20 Lebanon, NH [Lebanon Opera House] • 11/22 New Brunswick, NJ [State Theatre Of New Jersey] • 11/23 Norfolk, VA [NorVa Theatre] • 11/25 Danbury, CT [Premier Music Hall] • 11/26 Huntington, NY [Inter-Media Arts Center] • 12/02 Louisville, KY [Headliners Music Hall] • 12/03 Pittsburgh, PA [Manchester Craftsman's Guild] • 12/28 Charlotte, NC [McGlohon Theatre Of Spirit Square] • 12/30 Atlanta, GA [Variety Playhouse] • 12/31 Atlanta, GA [Variety Playhouse] • 01/14 North Bethesda, MD [Music Center @ Strathmore] • 01/19 Cleveland, OH [Odeon Concert Club] • 01/20 Easton, MD [Historic Avalon Theatre] • 01/24 Johnson City, NY [Magic City Music Hall] • 01/25 Buffalo, NY [Center For The Arts] • 01/27 Cincinnati, OH [Bogart's] • 01/28 Chicago, IL [Park West] • 03/30 Savannah, GA [Trustees Theater]
[LISTEN]

11.16.05 (AP) More than two months after Hurricane Katrina, all 21-year-old trumpeter Terrell Batiste has is a temporary home, a donated horn and a chance to eke out a living by playing New Orleans music in other parts of America. On Wednesday, the Jazz Foundation Of America is holding an auction in New York City to help Batiste and hundreds of other hurricane-displaced musicians with food, clothes, housing and jobs. Among those playing at the fund raiser will be 95-year-old tenor saxophonist Max Lucas, who once performed with Louis Armstrong, and 91-year-old alto saxophonist Fred Staton, who played with Art Blakey, Count Basie and Billy Strayhorn. On the auction block are more than 50 Jazz treasures, including Miles Davis' boa constrictor snakeskin jacket and the Boesendorfer grand piano from Manhattan's Blue Note club. Auction items also include guitar lessons from Bucky Pizzarelli, sax tutoring from Joe Lovano, and a 1961 New York Times photo that shows Louis Armstrong playing for his wife in front of the pyramids in Giza, Egypt. Roberta Flack is offering a vocal coaching session, and Billy Taylor a jazz piano lesson. The presale estimates range from $200 for the Times photo to $65,000 for the Blue Note piano. An online component of the fund-raiser offers the chance to record a track with the bass player and drummer for Jimi Hendrix's original BAND OF GYPSIES. Members of the HOT 8 BRASS BAND - Batiste, who lives in a Red Cross-sponsored apartment in Atlanta, and nine other young men whose edgy new Jazz was at the heart of pre-Katrina New Orleans - were flown in for the evening at B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill at Times Square. The New York-based foundation, which fields up to 20 requests a day for help, already has delivered more than $120,000 worth of new instruments. More than 100 musicians have been relocated into new homes or helped with mortgages on destroyed homes. With money from the band PEARL JAM and other donors, the foundation will pay 126 New Orleans evacuees to perform in the next six months for schoolchildren in Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Illinois and New York. "People are hearing a lot more of what was just in the streets of New Orleans," said the HOT 8 BRASS BAND's manager, Lee Arnold. "It's a good opportunity both for the country and the musicians." The Jazz Foundation Of America was created in 1989 by Billy Taylor and businessman Herb Storfer to help elderly Jazz musicians. Young and old, the New Orleans musicians are rooted in America's homegrown soundtrack, said Wendy Oxenhorn, the Jazz Foundation Of America's executive director. "This music was born out of the atrocities of slavery, when families were tortured and separated," she said. "They became these magnificent, strong, powerful people who ended up giving back a gift to the world that has gotten all of us through life. The musicians will survive."

11.04.05 (MusicPortal.com) THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT are climbing back into their tour bus to bring their music to the American masses and spread the word about their most recent studio release, "Revival." This time around, The Good Reverend is loading up his thirty-ought-six with rock salt and fiery rhetoric, bringing a double-barreled serving of brimstone and Rockabilly raunch to the newly converted. Reverend Horton Heat, a.k.a. Jim Heath, always gets asked about is the story behind his unusual and rather clerical moniker. "Well, there used to be this guy who ran this place in Deep Ellum, Texas who used to call me Horton - my last name is Heath," says Heath. "Anyway, this guy hired me, and right before the show he goes, 'Your stage name should be Reverend Horton Heat - your music is like gospel!' "And I thought it was pretty ridiculous. So I'm up there playing and after the first few songs, people are saying, 'Yeah, Reverend!' What's really funny is that this guy gave up the bar business, and actually became a preacher! Now he comes to our shows and says, 'Jim, you really should drop this whole Reverend thing.'" It's been an almost 20-year journey for Heath, whose Country-flavored Punkabilly and onstage antics have brought him and his band a strikingly diverse fan base and a devoted cult following, not to mention the respect of fellow musicians worldwide. "Revival," the band's first release for Yep Roc Records, is a return to Heath's roots - musical and geographical. The album was recorded at Last Beat Studios in the Deep Ellum area of Dallas, just a block from where he played his first gig, and next door to where the group currently rehearses. Along with eating a lot of world-class Mexican food and BBQ, the band recorded the album's 15 tracks with a minimum of overdubs, bells and whistles. With tour manager/engineer Dave Allen at the board, they wanted an album they could duplicate live. Reunited with veteran producer/engineer Ed Stasium, who mixed the album, "Revival" is a 40-plus minute slab of Rockabilly, Blues and old-school R&B that shows THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT in their prime. Upcoming Tour Dates: 11/05 Paradise Valley, AZ [Sanctuary Resort] • 11/12 Norfolk, UK [Vauxhall Park] • 11/16 Houston, TX [Engine Room] • 11/17 San Antonio, TX [Jack's Bar] • 11/18 San Marcos, TX [Lucy's] • 11/19 Ft. Worth, TX [Axis] • 12/01 Kansas City, MO [Beaumont Club] • 12/02 Columbia, MO [Blue Note] • 12/03 Chicago, IL [Metro] • 12/04 Milwaukee, WI [Shank Hall] • 12/05 Minneapolis, MN [First Avenue] • 12/06 Madison, WI [High Noon] • 12/08 Indianapolis, IN [Vogue Theatre] • 12/09 Lansing, MI [Temple Club] • 12/10 Columbus, OH [Newport Music Hall] • 12/11 Cleveland, OH [House Of Blues] • 12/12 Troy, NY [Revolution Hall] • 12/14 Lancaster, PA [Chameleon] • 12/15 Brooklyn, NY [Southpaw] • 12/17 Asbury Park, NJ [Asbury Lanes] • 12/18 Atlantic City, NJ [House Of Blues] • 12/19 Norfolk, VA [NorVa] • 12/20 Cincinnati, OH [Top Cats] • 12/21 Louisville, KY [Jim Porter's] • 12/28 Tempe, AZ [Marquee Theatre] • 12/29 San Diego, CA [House Of Blues] • 12/30 Anaheim, CA [House Of Blues] • 12/31 Santa Rosa, CA [Last Day Saloon]
[LISTEN]

11.01.05 (MusicPortal.com) A new collection from ISAAC HAYES entitled "Ultimate Isaac Hayes: Can You Dig It?" will be released on CD and DVD tomorrow via Stax Records, now an imprint of Concord Music Group, Inc. Over the course of its original 15-year history, Stax Records was home to a plethora of stars such as Otis Redding, SAM AND DAVE, BOOKER T. & THE MG'S, THE STAPLE SINGERS, Johnnie Taylor, and THE DRAMATICS. As talented and great as the aforementioned artists were, none of them ultimately had the impact on black popular music that ISAAC HAYES did from 1969 through 1975. His story is one of epic proportions. In the mid- to late 1960s, Hayes and songwriting and producing partner David Porter, played a seminal role in creating the nascent sound of modern Soul music, writing and producing such genre-defining records as SAM AND DAVE's 'Soul Man,' 'Hold On I'm Comin',' 'When Something Is Wrong With My Baby,' 'Wrap It Up' and 'I Thank You.' In their spare time, the dynamic songwriting duo also penned hits for Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Ruby Johnson, Mable John, and THE SOUL CHILDREN. As a session man, Hayes played on dozens of additional hits as well. His songwriting, production, and session work alone would make Isaac Hayes worthy of any music hall of fame that one could possibly name. Yet, as monumental as his contributions were in this first part of his career, they are dwarfed by the impact of his solo albums such as "Hot Buttered Soul," "Shaft" and "Black Moses." With those albums, ISAAC HAYES would become the biggest artist Stax Records ever produced, and one of the most important artists in the history of Rhythm And Blues. From 1969 through 1975, Hayes single-handedly redefined the sonic possibilities of black music - in the process opening up the album market as a commercially viable medium for black artists. The fact that one musician could be responsible for such disparate but equally great and influential music as ISAAC HAYES produced in the 1960s and '70s simply boggles the imagination. Hayes was born in Covington, Tennessee in 1942. By the time he came to Stax, he had been singing or playing the piano in various bands around Memphis for a number of years, cutting his first single for Chips Moman's Youngstown label in late 1962. His first session at Stax was as the keyboardist in baritone saxophonist Floyd Newman's band in 1963. Impressed by Hayes's playing, Stax owner Jim Stewart began booking him for sessions while the company's regular keyboard player, Booker T. Jones, was off at college. Within two years, ISAAC HAYES had hooked up with David Porter and embarked on a writing and producing career. As Hayes was becoming successful behind the scenes, he still entertained thoughts of a career as a performing artist. Stax executive Al Bell had similar ideas. "As a marketer I'd look at Isaac Hayes," mused Bell, "and (I'd) see him banging on the piano and (I) watched his approach which, in terms of the way he held his hands, was sort of like the kind of stuff I..." [full story]

[Blues News: October 2005]
[Top]